Chance Meeting
by LucyLuna
Summary: While Peni is in Gwen's 'verse visiting with her, they encounter Aaron. Part nineteen of My Memories Came Back in the Form of Someone Else. One-Shot.


_Chance Meeting_

* * *

"A Tamagotchi?" said Gwen, interest piqued. She'd have thought a silly little toy like Tamagotchis would have been all but forgotten so far into the future when there were so many cooler and more impressive things for kids to play with. Coming to a stop at the lights, Gwen crossed her arms and looked at Peni, who was smirking. "Those are still a thing in your 'verse?"

Peni nodded. "Yeah!" she said. "I mean, you have to sort of be a historical game buff to know them, but they aren't forgotten." Grinning now, she told Gwen, "My friend JJ is one. He really adores obscure video games from the early 00s. A Tamagotchi would be a perfect holiday present for him!"

The lights turning green, they walk across the street, and Gwen said, "I guess that's doable." Gwen looked up at the street signs on the other side of the crosswalk and told Peni, "We'll want to go to the one on Dekalb Avenue from here. It's the closest."

"Stellar!" she said, pumping a fist into the air. Her head then swiveled around and said to Gwen, "Hey, why don't I buy you a coffee or snack or something? You're doing me a major favor taking me all over your New York today."

She shook her head and tried to turn down the offer. "Oh, you don't have to Peni…" she replied

"I want to," insisted the other girl. Pointing ahead at a sign sticking out over the heads of other moving New Yorkers she said, "How about that place up there? Café Drowsy!" She laughed and commented, "I love that name."

Gwen smirked. It _ was _ a fun name and she knew the place too. She'd gone to another in Manhattan while on a field trip for school last year. "Yeah, sure. They're good," she agreed.

Peni grabbed her hand. "Then let's go," she said before pulling Gwen along at a quick pace to the café.

Not five minutes later Gwen and Peni were in line inside Café Drowsy waiting for it to be their turn to order. A thought came to her and Gwen bumped gently into Peni saying "So, tell me a little more about this JJ. You haven't mentioned him before."

Peni looked away, the softest pink fanning over her cheeks. "Well, he's sort of new, actually," she explained. "His parents split up a few years back, but just recently his mom got a job in Brooklyn and he and his brother decided to move in with her full-time so they could go to my school." Meeting Gwen's gaze, she gushed, "He's really kind! We got to talking because he saw me doodling SP/dr and then we had this great discussion about how stellar its mechanics are to be capable of some of the bot's more delicate maneuvers."

She laughed. "Oooh, a geek," she teased. "Perfect for you."

The pink on Peni's cheeks deepened and she began wildly shake her head, the ponytail she had her hair in flopping around her face. "Stop!" she whined, "JJ's already got the attention of _ much _prettier classmates. I'm sure he'll be with one of them in no time."

Gwen felt a twinge of concern bloom in her chest. Putting a hand on the other girl's shoulder she said, "Don't cut yourself short, Peni. You're pretty cute too _ and _ nice _ and _smart." She smirked at Peni. "You're the whole package."

Peni stared dumbfounded at Gwen for a moment before bursting into nervous giggles. "Let's not get me ahead of myself," she said. "I've known JJ like three months. I just thought to get him a Tamagotchi would show him I appreciate our friendship so far and would like for us to continue to be friends."

Gwen decided to drop it. _ She _felt it was pretty clear Peni had a bit of a crush on this JJ, but if she wasn't ready to do anything about it, pushing the issue wouldn't help. Shrugging, she said with a knowing smile, "Whatever you say…"

"Aren't you always the one complaining about everyone always teasing you about Miles?" Peni asked pointedly.

She blinked. This was turning into something kind of like that, wasn't it? "You're right. Sorry, Peni," she replied.

"It's okay," the other girl replied with a toothy smile. Kindly, she added, "People a hundred and six years from now still tease their friends about people they think they would be cute with."

Gwen didn't feel comforted by her friend's forgiveness and said, "Still, I should know better."

"I forgive you," Peni said empathetically, even reaching out to squeeze her hand a moment. Her attention was then pulled away as the person ahead of them moved away from the counter. "Hey, look, we're up next!" she exclaimed before asking Gwen, "What do you want?"

She squinted at the board a moment before saying, "Hmm, a mocha is always good…"

-o-O-o-

A half an hour later, Gwen and Peni walked into Toys R Us. Shortly past the doors, Peni just stopped and let her eyes rove over the store before them. "Wow," she said, "I don't think I've ever been to a place with so many toys."

Gwen laughed. "Are toy stores not a thing in the future?"

Peni pursed her lips. "They _ are_, just not in this size," she answered.

She tried to imagine a world where there weren't warehouse-sized toy stores and couldn't. It'd seemed reasonable Toys R Us might not exist a hundred something years from now, lots of businesses came and went, but for there to be no place like this for kids to go and explore? What place did parents bribe their kids with in the future if they behaved? Gwen was going to ask Peni how there could be no place like Toys R Us in the future when her attention was drawn to a familiar face that was quickly approaching the doors and, in turn, them. "Oh shit, that's Aaron," she murmured to Peni.

Peni blinked and started to look in the direction Gwen's gaze was fixed. "Aaron?" she said. "You mean—"

"Gwen!" Aaron called, drowning out the rest of what Peni said to her. The man was smirking as he approached. "How's it goin', girl?" he asked, shoving his hands into his jean's pockets. A mid-sized Toys R Us bag swung back and forth on his wrist and if Gwen squinted, she was pretty sure she could make out the Spider-Woman logo through the semi-opaque plastic bag. He must have bought an action figure of her or something.

"Hey, Aaron," she replied, offering him a smile. "I'm fine." She widened her smile and remarked, "Funny seeing you here."

"Ah, well," he replied glancing down at the bag on his wrist. "You know how it is when you're Christmas shopping," he explained, "The R Us near my place was outta what Miles wants and they had this place put their stock of it on hold for me."

Gwen nodded. She had figured as much. "Yeah, it's a pain," she agreed thinking about how she still needed to find gifts for all of her bandmates that each of them would like. She looked at Peni then, recalling how she said earlier after they got their coffee in a few years shopping for her friends and family would be a snap to do. "Peni here thinks in coupla years we'll hardly remember any of this when online shopping catches on and becomes the norm," she told him, smirking at the other girl.

"Online shopping," Aaron replied disbelieving as Peni puffed out her cheeks, annoyed at his tone. "Pff," he said, "I ain't ever doin' that." Incredulous, he asked, "How I'm gonna know if it fits right or somethin'?"

"That's what I said!" Gwen said.

Peni sighed at the two of them and crossed her arms. "Trust me," she insisted, "the convenience of not having to interrupt your busy schedules nine times out of ten is going to win you all over before you know it."

Gwen didn't bother to hide her eye-roll. "Sure, Peni."

"Oh my God," her friend said in exasperation. "Just talk to Peter and Mi—" she stopped and her eyes flitted to Aaron. "Er, our friends if you don't believe me," she finished in a mumble.

Aaron's eyes narrowed and a note of suspicion passed across his features, however, Gwen didn't let him know she knew. Playing dumb, she knocked shoulders with Peni and said, "I was just kidding with you, I trust you guys."

Seeing the opportunity before him, Aaron commented, "I thought I knew all Gwen's friends." The remark hit its target and Peni began to fidget as he asked, You from outta town?"

"Uh…" she stammered before replying in a rush to cover up her hesitation, "Yes! I'm visiting from upstate."

"Oh yeah?" he said, shifting his weight to his heels and leaning back.

"Yeah," she answered. Waving an arm at the store before her and Gwen, Peni said, "New York's got the best shopping around! I'm looking for a gift for a friend back home…"

"Cool," he said before shifting his attention back to Gwen. "And you Gwen? Just being a homie today or are you shopping too?" he asked. A smirk crossed his face as he said, "Maybe for that boy you're going out with?"

She frowned, confused. "Boy I'm going…" she began only to trail off as she realized he was talking about Harry. It hadn't felt like it since she saw him so frequently as Spider-Woman, but the last time she saw Aaron as Aaron had been all the way back in August. "Oh, you mean Harry," she said. She shook her head. "No, I had to break it off with him. He broke a promise to me."

"Aw, sorry to hear about that, kid," he said sounding truly apologetic.

Gwen shrugged him off. She didn't think much about Harry these days. It'd been a stupid choice to begin with and she was just glad she dumped him before she got really invested in him. "It's no big deal," she replied, "it was a couple of months ago now."

"Coupla months?" he echoed with a strange look on his face.

She nodded, frowning. "Yeah."

"…Been some time since I seen you, huh?" he remarked in an almost pointed tone.

"Erh, I guess it has, hasn't it?" said Gwen caught a little off guard. Thinking quick, she said, "I'll probably see you again really soon, though, I suspect. Rio invited me to a Christmas party she's holding for some friends and their families on the twentieth this month, you going?"

He dipped his chin. "Yeah," he answered. "For the first time in a few years."

"Sweet. Well, I'll see you then!" she replied with a grin. Grabbing Peni's arm, she gave her a tug to take them past Aaron and toward the aisles upon aisles of toys.

"Yeah," he replied while lifting a hand to wave goodbye. "See you 'round, kid."

Gwen just broadened her smile before pulling herself and Peni behind a Lego display. Once they were essentially hidden by a lego skyscraper, Gwen turned to Peni. Her friend had her knees bent slightly, head bowed, and a hand over her chest. "Peni?" she asked, concerned.

Her friend looked up and gave a breathless giggle. "Oh wow, for a minute there I was worried."

"Worried?" she repeated, perplexed. "About what?"

It was Peni's turn to looked confused. Straightening up, she asked, "When you said you broke up a couple of months ago, didn't you see how his expression changed for a second there?"

She shook her head. "Sorry, I must have blinked."

Peni pursed her lips. "Have you given much thought to telling him about your Spider-ego?"

Gwen looked away. Truthfully, she hadn't. Things were going pretty well as-is and she was afraid if she rushed them one way or another Aaron might get jumpy and do something stupid like go back to being a villain. "I've sort of just been hoping he'd share his identity with me first and then I could tell him mine."

"I don't know if that's a good idea…" Peni murmured.

Gwen's eyes shot back to the other girl. "Why not?" she asked.

"You're the one trying to show him _ you're _trustworthy and want him to succeed as a hero, right?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, since it's you doing all the showing… I think you're going to have to take the lead on this, Gwen. You'll have to reveal yourself first. Maybe he'll share his identity then, maybe he won't. No matter what happens, I think he'll feel a lot more inclined to be careful and to stick to the hero side instead of backsliding because he _ knows _you as Gwen and Spider-Woman and isn't going to want to hurt you."

She sucked her lip between her teeth and started to chew it. Peni's speech felt very sound, but she was still nervous and unsure. "Do you think I have to do it soon for that to be how things go instead of him feeling betrayed?"

Peni nodded. "You've shown him you have a lot of faith in him already, haven't you? How did he act when you gave him that Goober?"

"Surprised," she answered, "but then I thought he looked touched."

The girl smiled. "See?" she said. "It's not a bad idea. I'm sure he might even suspect you will soon after that."

She sighed heavily. "Alright," she said. "I'll start thinking of how I'm going to do it and run it by you guys," Gwen told her. "Especially Miles, I think. He _ is _ his uncle from another 'verse."

Peni reached over and took Gwen's hand in hers and gave it a squeeze. "That's a good idea," she praised. "I know none of this is easy for you, but, really, it'll be for the best."

She smiled at Peni. "I know," she said. "I appreciate you pushing me to not get comfortable in this weird limbo I'm in with him. I can be _ after _everything's in the open."

Peni grinned in reply. "You're welcome," she replied.

Gwen lifted her gaze away from Peni's face and to the signs hanging above them. "There's the electronics aisle," she said, "let's go see if a Tamogatchi is there."

Her friend let nodded, easily slipping back into their previous conversation about the toy and letting the Aaron/the Prowler topic lie. Walking in the direction of the aisle the Tamogatchi was in, she and Peni began to discuss the merits of colors and models and what JJ might like the best from what would be available.

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**More Peni and Gwen friendship with some Aaron! How did you like it?**

**Thanks for reading!**


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